2001 Annual Report

Q: What do these people have in common?

• A global emissions trading consultant;
• Chair of the "Light of Sacred Lands" program at the Sacred Earth Network;
• A recipient of the George Soros "Young Leaders" scholarship;
• A junior researcher on the Siberian Energy Institute Youth Board.

A: They were all participants in the Tahoe-Baikal Institute.

The events of September 11 and their consequences have reinforced our conviction that TBI and programs like it are vital if we hope to live in a world where conflict can be resolved without destruction. While TBI programs do not focus directly on conflict resolution, they do build a network of people that are committed to working together to protect mutually valued world resources. Each participant leaves the TBI program with a new understanding of not just one, but several cultures' perspectives on environmental protection, and the role of individuals in global issues.

The Tahoe-Baikal Institute is reaching new levels of international cooperation. As we expand our focus to include the Mongolian portion of the Baikal watershed, alumni are pooling their expertise to set up trans-boundary projects. Russian and American TBI board members continue to meet in person to map out new program directions for TBI. During the past few years, new ideas for projects and adjunct programs have sprung from ongoing communication between alumni and local agencies. This buildup of enthusiasm, both inside and outside of TBI, is the result we strive for through our programs.

I hope this compilation of accounts from this year's three major activities conveys the flavor of TBI in its eleventh year. You can read below about gold-mining impacts in Mongolia; the first visit of California Secretary of Resources Mary Nichols to Lake Baikal; and TBI projects on reintroduction of native species, industry in stream environment zones, erosion, and forest health, to name a few.

Lastly, I would like to join the board in thanking you, our TBI supporters, for helping to build an organization that has been extremely rewarding to work with. After five great years with TBI, at the end of the month I will be leaving the position of Executive Director to pursue more of my own environmental goals. These goals have been defined, in large part, by the six intensive summers spent with the motivating and inspiring people of TBI.

We look forward to introducing you to Tony Brunello, our new Executive Director who will start at TBI in mid-December. He joins our Program Director, Silke Rover, who is moving up from the Program Coordinator position.

With deep appreciation for your support of the Tahoe-Baikal Institute,
--Karen Smallwood, Executive Director
December 2001

Board Chair Bob Harris with TBI Alum Alexei Grachev

Summer Program 2001
by Silke Rover (TBI'96), Program Coordinator

"I liked all program activities - sooner or later all knowledge that was conveyed to us will find its application." This comment from a Russian participant typifies the good spirit of the TBI 2001 group, which experienced more than its share of culture shock, including a week without running water in California, and the longest train ride in TBI history--4 days from Moscow to Ulan-Ude on the Trans-Siberian! This year's hardy group included eight Russians, seven Americans, one Mongolian, and one Japanese participant.

The 2001 program focused on strengthening leadership skills as well as drawing parallels between specific environmental issues at each lake. With mining a growing source of pollution in the Baikal region, the TBI-2001 group visited Leviathan Mine, east of Lake Tahoe, to discuss the legal ramifications of the environmental degradation caused by this former copper-mining site.

Leadership-building activities took the form of participant presentations and participant-led discussions on environmental issues that affect Tahoe, Baikal, and other regions. The group examined the impacts of global trade agreements, high consumer demand for disposable products and packaging, and the restructuring of the Russian Ministry of the Environment. After a very successful Grassroots Organizing Workshop, the participants split into small groups to develop individual action plans on issues of concern in their home regions, including enforcement of sustainable agriculture and promoting eco-tourism.

Three program days in Russia were dedicated to studying Buddhist and indigenous views on the preservation of sensitive lands. There are many similarities between the relationship that the Buryats, on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, have with their sacred lake and that of the Washoe with Lake Tahoe.

This year's program was also assisted by an increase in the activity of volunteers and returning TBI alumni. Several alumni returned to design and lead strong projects at both Tahoe and Baikal, provide general program support, and to work as summer program staff.

Projects at Tahoe
A stronger emphasis was placed on formal presentation of the project results this year. In Tahoe, TBI participants explained their 2-week project work through Powerpoint during a public presentation hosted by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board. At Baikal, TBI board members attended project presentations. Six of this year's eight projects were continuations of last year's efforts.

Stream Health Monitoring Project (Dorrie Panayotou, (TBI '96)--California Tahoe Conservancy, Tahoe Research Group). Participants sampled six sites on three streams for aquatic insects and other water quality indicators. Project results will help in evaluating the success of watershed restoration approaches in the Tahoe Basin.

Fallen Leaf Lake Food Web Study (Martha Chang (TBI '98), Carri LeRoy (TBI'00), Sudeep Chandra (TBI '97). Sponsored by Ambassador William Lane). Using stable isotope analysis, participants mapped a food web that shows whether a reintroduction of the native Lahontan Cutthroat Trout could be successful in the Tahoe Basin. The group concluded that Lake Trout, which hold a similar trophic position to the Cutthroat, would hinder the native trout in reaching a stable population. Participants made their recommendations available to wildlife managers involved in the trout reintroduction.

Wild Horses Project (Jeanne McVey, Gary Cook--Earth Island Institute). The wild horse team explored the controversy over the relative impacts of wild horses and cattle on western water quality, assessing impacts on stream ecosystems, and reviewing economic and policy issues related to use of public lands.

Tahoe Yellow Cress (Beth Gross, Victor Insera, Rick Robinson--California Tahoe Conservancy). Participants created a portable Power Point presentation that will be used by wildlife managers to educate the public about protection of Tahoe's endangered endemic Tahoe Yellow Cress. The TBIers premiered their presentation at a Forest Service campfire hour.

City Planning (Lisa O'Daly--City of South Lake Tahoe). In this year's only new TBI project at Tahoe, participants inventoried industrial uses and structures that are incompatible with the stream environment zones in which they are located. Riding bikes through the city, participants identified 30 industrial businesses that could be moved or otherwise improved.

Projects at Baikal

Reintroduction of the Great Cormorant (Erdeniy and Natasha Elaev (TBI'94 and '96), Valeriy Yesheyevich Yesheyev, Buryat Nature Museum). In an attempt to increase the biodiversity of the Baikal region by creating a stable cormorant population, TBI participants and scientists from the Buryat Nature Museum and the Zabaikalskiy Nationl Park began to eintroduce a test group of cormorants.

Olkhon Island Restoration Project (Andrey Lyapin (TBI '94), Landscape Architect). TBI participants worked to prevent existing gullies from deepening by building fences to catch eroding topsoil. They then assisted a teacher at a childrens' summer camp by organizing an eco-poster contest and a clean up of a stretch of Baikal shoreline.

Baikalsk Forest Health Project (Alexei Shehovtsov (TBI '99), Irkutsk Geography Institute). This continuation project researched geobotanical and dendrochronological effects of the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill on tundra, cedar forest, and steppe, with the goal of adding to environmental quality maps created by the Geography Institute.

Sudeep Chandra ('97) and Darcie Goodman ('01) collect fish samples on Fallen Leaf Lake

Selenga Research Expedition in Mongolia
by Andrew Stubblefield, PhD Candidate, UC Davis, Graduate Group In Ecology, Expedition Leader

The Selenga River is Lake Baikal's largest tributary. Traveling through Mongolia and Russia's Buryat Republic before reaching Lake Baikal, it supports mining, agriculture, fishing, and other industry. TBI hopes to bring awareness to problems of pollution entering Baikal via the Selenga River.

This August, with support from the Mead Foundation, a group of young American, Russian and Mongolian scientists, several of them TBI alumni, traveled the length and breadth of the Mongolian portion of the Selenga River watershed. The primary goals of the expedition were to assess the water quality of the region and evaluate the impacts of surface gold mining in the floodplains. Further goals were to bring Mongolian, Russian, and American scientists together in their mutual concern for the Selenga River; to begin on-going environmental monitoring; and to give future environmental leaders experience in the field and with international cooperation.

The trip was a great success. The group made it to twelve rivers, sampling most of them three times over the course of a month. They measured suspended sediment, phosphorus, nitrogen, turbidity, oxygen, conductivity, temperature and discharge. (Measuring discharge on a river flowing at 15,000 cubic feet per second was not easy. The forty-pound river sampler was tossed like a cork in the flows of the Selenga.)

The tremendous impacts of the mining were apparent even before analyzing a single sample. Traveling to the rugged mountain region of Bugant and the Zamaar gold fields, the expedition found vast floodplains turned upside down. At Zamaar, half the floodplain had been stripped by massive 5-story floating dredges. The other half of the floodplain awaits a similar fate, its beautiful curving meanders glinting in the sun. The water from the Tuul River, draining the Zamaar region, was the most turbid of any of the waters in the region. We are preparing the data for publication in the hopes that it will raise awareness of the problem in Mongolia and internationally.

In addition to mining, expedition members also observed the impacts of grazing in Mongolia. Increasingly, grazing for subsistence is being replaced by grazing for a cash economy--dairy and beef cows, Kashmir goats. As a result, the condition of Mongolia's grazing lands (which cover most of the country) is fast deteriorating. Erosion from these over-grazed areas also contributes to sedimentation in the Selenga, decreasing habitat for fish and reducing the river's natural ability to filter out pollutants. In cooperation with concerned Mongolian and Russian scientists and students, we hope that future TBI research expeditions can examine impacts from both of these serious contributors to pollution in the Selenga watershed.

Russian and American Board Members Meet and Brainstorm for the Future

Thanks to support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and a tremendous effort by TBI-U.S. Board Chair Bob Harris, TBI exchanged two board member delegations this year. Four U.S. board members, including California Secretary for Resources Mary Nichols, traveled to Baikal and Mongolia this past August, accompanied by several California policymakers. In late November, TBI-Russia Vice-Chair, Dr. Vladimir Fialkov, arrived in California for a week. The main purpose of these exchanges was to promote close cooperation between the American and Russian boards in charting the future of TBI.

Since TBI has increased its emphasis on trans-boundary cooperation in the Selenga watershed, the American delegation met with and signed agreements with Mongolian and Buryat natural resource ministries and with the Joint Working Group for Protection of the Selenga River, a consortium of Russian and Mongolian government environmental agencies. During Dr. Fialkov's follow-up visit to the U.S. in November, we built on these connections and discussed how to create stronger ties between these agencies and TBI participants.

Recently registered in Irkutsk as a non-profit organization, TBI-Russia is ready to embark upon a joint fundraising effort with the TBI-U.S. board. During both of this year's board exchanges, we pursued ideas for a proposal on a project in the Selenga watershed. Ideas include an overview of research papers from the Selenga region, a GIS map of pollutant sources on the Selenga, and a study of toxins accumulating in algae in the Selenga delta.

The visits highlighted the fact that, as TBI enters its second decade, it has a strong base of support for strengthening and expanding programs. We look forward, with the help of our friends and partner organizations, to increasing opportunities to collaborate with future environmental leaders across the Baikal and Tahoe regions, and beyond.